This past football season, Pat Finnerty was a force to be reckoned with on Thomson's offensive line. And to prove it, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution gave him first team All-State honors.

The senior Bulldog split the defense for Thomson's running backs all season, and they constantly patted him on the back for his work.

Pat said he was appreciative of the kind words, but wins were what he hoped for instead of personal recognition.

"All the recognition I need is just seeing points on the board," he said. "That feels better than anybody telling me I had a good block."

Pat was surprised at being named to the All-State team, but he was glad his play helped a successful but injury-plagued season of Thomson football in which the Bulldogs won the region championship with a 9-2 overall record.

"It's hard to believe," he said. "I never would have thought that at the beginning of the season I would have been able to do something this good."

A positive attitude and leadership during tough games were two attributes that Pat feels like he was able to contribute to the team.

"I think I just never would get down on all those times we had those bad games or couldn't get everything together, and I would never point fingers and just try to keep everybody up and not worrying about the score of all the games," he said. "I really tried to use as much of my senior leadership as I could with some of the kids who were kind of young and hadn't been in that place before."

The first team honors were published in Sunday's AJC. Pat was one of five offensive linemen in the AAA classification to make the team which also included another Region 3-AAA lineman, Willie Thompson from Jefferson County.